Showing results by author "T.C. Boyle" in All Categories

We are being watched. That this statement no longer shocks is itself shocking. Post-Snowden, we know that the government - everywhere - has been reading our emails, listening to our phone calls, and watching whatever we do on the Internet. The only thing concealed is the nature of our watchers. In Watchlist, some of today's most prominent and promising fiction writers from around the globe respond to, reflect on, and mine for inspiration the surveillance culture in which we live.

From silly chuckles to rueful ironic glee to deep cosmic laughter, this new volume of humorous tales samples the best of recent seasons of the popular public radio series Selected Shorts.

Lonnie is tired. He's tired of his job, the monotony of it, and tired of the predictability ofhis home life now that he's a father. It's a day like every other day, and hecan't face the inevitability of it all. So he lies. It's a small lie, but heknows small lies become big ones. He knows it as soon as he says his daughteris in the hospital. But he can't stop himself, and he can't stop the lie fromtaking on a life of its own.

Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacker lead an ordered, sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: He is a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. Mexican illegals Candido and America Rincon desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine.

Was passiert, wenn die Natur zurückbeißt? – Der neue Roman von T.C. Boyle. Der Countdown zur Apokalypse läuft: Kalifornien geht in Flammen auf, Überschwemmungen bedrohen Florida. "Der Planet stirbt, siehst du das nicht?", wirft Cooper seiner Mutter vor, die ihre Küche gehorsam auf frittierte Heuschrecken umstellt. Heftige Diskussionen gibt es auch mit Schwester Cat. Sie hat sich als Haustier eine Tigerpython namens Willie angeschafft, die sie sich wie ein glitzerndes Juwel um die Schultern hängt.

Welcome to America. On the East Coast, homes are being swallowed by the ocean; on the West Coast, California is engulfed with wildfire. But for one family, the impending environmental disaster is the least of their worries. Party girl Cat just impulse-purchased a snake; her pious brother Cooper is wrestling with a tic bite; and their mom Ottilie has resorted to cooking with crickets. Everyone is drinking too much – and the bugs seems to be disappearing. It seems as if it's anything but blue skies ahead...

In electric prose T. C. Boyle explores myriad facets of society: greed and excess, parenthood and responsibility, the digital world and the way we understand our mortality. Roaming unrestrainedly through the present and near future, he inhabits his characters’ minds with a ventriloquist’s flair, skewering human motivations and revealing us to ourselves with empathy and wry humour.

Ein gelangweilter Witwer, ein ominöser Brief und ein gerissener (Online-)Betrüger – das ist der Stoff, aus dem T.C. Boyle beste Unterhaltung macht. Florian Lukas („Weissensee“, „Good Bye Lenin“), selbst bekennender Boyle-Fan, liest die Short Story „Der Beauftragte“ aus „Sind wir nicht Menschen“. Übersetzt von Dirk van Gunsteren, exklusiv präsentiert von Hörverlag Serials und dem Carl Hanser Verlag. Sounddesign: Thomas Süßmair Am 24. Februar erscheint „Sind wir nicht Menschen“ als Hörbuch und als Buchausgabe. Mehr Infos zu T.C. Boyle, Hörverlag Serials und zum ...

In seinen neuesten Stories nimmt uns T.C. Boyle, der große Chronist der amerikanischen Seele, mit auf eine bewegte Reise in unsere unheimliche Zukunft- böser und witziger und unterhaltsamer denn je. Sind wir eigentlich noch Menschen, wenn man durch Genmanipulation perfekte Kinder aus einem Katalog zeugen kann? In dieser schönen Zukunft kann es dann auch passieren, dass der kirschrot phosphoreszierende Pitbull das klavierspielende Mikroschwein der Nachbarin zerfleischt. Wäre da nicht eine Reise in die Vergangenheit angebrachter, die nun dank der Relive Box möglich ist?

T. C. Boyles Roman über den Psychologen und Hippie Timothy Leary und dessen LSD-Experimente: hell, bunt und wie ein Rausch. Endlich wird der aufstrebende wissenschaftliche Assistent Fitz auf eine der LSD-Partys seines Professors, dem Psychologen und LSD-Guru Timothy Leary, eingeladen. Er erhofft sich davon einen wichtigen Karriereschritt, merkt aber bald, dass Learys Ziele weniger medizinischer Natur sind; es geht dem Psychologen um eine Revolution des Bewusstseins und eine von sozialen Zwängen losgelöste Lebensform.

Gordon is a delivery driver with a predilection toward road rage, and he's on the most important delivery of his life. In Santa Barbara there's a mother of three on life support waiting for Gordon, waiting for the liver he's transporting from Los Angeles. But there's a mudslide, and cars are being swept away, people being buried in the sludge. And Gordon, who's as far from a hero as they come, has to find a way to get the liver to Santa Barbara.

Marita Vallalba is revered in her Venezuelan village, and not just because her son, Aquiles Maldonado, is a big league baseball player in the United States. In fact, it is because of her son and his multimillion-dollar contract that has been splashed across the Venezuelan newspapers that she is kidnapped and held for ransom. Upon returning home, Aquiles is advised against paying the ransom, but he is prepared to go to any lengths to get his motherback.

This short story from Wild Child was originally published in A Public Space. Reeling from his second divorce, Hunter is taken out on a party boat by his old college roommate, Damian. Looking forward to the promise of distraction, and maybe even the chance to meet a woman, Hunter acquiesces to the fishing adventure, despite his tendency toward seasickness. But outings with Damian are just as uncertain as the sea.

This short story from the collection Wild Child was originally published in Playboy. It's the middle of a snow storm, and Johnny Bandon, a washed up crooner in the style of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, is getting ready to record a Christmas single. The session musicians are there, and so is his backup singer. Darlene Delmar is a down and out soul singer ravaged by cheating boyfriends and STDs. But for this one moment in time, maybe music can reach out and soothe both Johnny and Darlene's souls just one more time.

Selected Shorts is an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors. The readings are recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. The Selected Shorts radio series is a co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio, and is heard on public radio stations nationwide.

Smithstown is a divided community, and Cal is right in the middle. He believes, like his best friend Dave, that evolution is scientific fact. But he's drawn to Lynnese, a devout Christian who believes in intelligent design and whose daughter, Mary-Louise, has only widened the chasm forming in the town. As Smithstown is split between science and religion and their place in the local high school, Cal doesn't know which way to turn or which side of the road to walk on.

This short story from the collection Wild Child was originally published in the New Yorker. Dámaso Funes is a medical miracle. He didn't make a sound when he was born, and as the years go by it's found that he doesn't feel pain. Not when he picks up hot coals with his bare hands or when he breaks his leg. To his father he is a sideshow freak, a spectacle from which he can make money, but to the village doctor who delivered him he is much more. He is a marvel, a wonder of genetics - the next step of human evolution.

A divorcée disturbed by her upcoming thirty-fifth birthday decides to get a Botox treatment. But then she develops a crush on the plastic surgeon, whose secretary looks like a walking advertisement for the whole industry. When he spurns her advances, she's thrown further into a crisis of self-image, wanting only to see herself in a new light, as something better.

When Gerald Loomis loses his wife, friends and neighbors try to rally him with food and suggestions for pets to keep him company. But Gerald has already picked a pet, a Burmese Python he's named Siddhartha. During a cold snap, Gerald ventures out to the pet store to pick up a rat to feed Siddhartha but finds he can't follow through with letting the rat die.

Mae is in her Southern California garden early one morning when a tiger shows up at the edge of her yard. Meanwhile Mae's sister, Anita, is in Wisconsin grieving her dead husband, dealing with a pack of feral cats under her trailer, and trying to start a relationship with Todd, a man who's lobbying for a ballot measure that will allow people to kill strays. Mae and Anita have been vegetarians since high school, but they're still learning what it means to care about animals, both wild and human.